SONY lost 3.31 Billion on initial PS3 costs; May never see that money back.

[Bodhesatva]

tombi123 said:

Bodhesatva said:

tombi123 said:
If Blu-ray becomes as dominant as DVD, Sony will easily make this money back. The End.

 

Sigh, you've been here for too long to say stuff like this, Tombi.

Do you have any evidence to support this? At all? Any statistical data to indicate how much money Sony specifically makes? Factor in the continued marketing costs, derive the precise royalty fees for each Blu Ray sold, and then calculate precisely how much of each royalty payment goes to Sony, and not one of the other seventeen members on the board of directors? Are we certain that none of the other 94 members don't get a cut for their generous support? Do we know how much marketing costs will incur to support Blu Ray (not the PS3, but Blu Ray in particular)? I'd guess you have no evidence of any kind, because I've looked, and I certainly can't find any. It may be 200 million per board member, it may be 1 billion. I don't know. But you don't either, so stop using this defense.

And of course, all of this assumes, as you say, that Blu Ray takes off like DVD.

 

Sorry no data. But do you think 17 companies would spend billions of dollars developing a format, if it wasn't worth it in the end?

I am 99% sure Blu- Ray will take off like DVD. With all the film industry behind Blu-Ray, it doesn't matter whether the general public want it or not. Blu-Ray will get forced on the consumers. In a couple of years Blu-Ray players will hit mass market point. Film companies will start to release their films on Blu-Ray first, then on DVD later. As Blu-Ray player sales rise, film companies will forget about DVD's all together.

As the price of making films goes up, film companies can't keep selling DVD's at £10 at retail. Film companies would rather sell you a Blu-Ray film for £20, rather than a DVD for £10. As I say, film companies will force Blu-Ray upon the consumer, and as Blu-Ray player prices come down, the consumers will just accept this.

I'm not arguing that, and you weren't either, at least originally. The original discussion was about Sony's profitability. You claimed that Blu Ray would recoup 3 billion dollars in losses for Sony; that's stated clearly and concisely in your original post. When I challenged this notion, you changed topics. Let's recap:

Tombi: Sony will make 3 billion dollars in losses back from Blu Ray royalties.
Bodhesatva: Are you sure? What data do you have to support this?
Tombi: Blu Ray will do well in the format war.

Nice sidestep there, Tombi. So we agree that there is no way to know precisely how much Sony stands to gain from Blu Ray patents? And we agree it's likely that whatever royalties do exist will be shared amongst the Blu Ray Disc Association's Founding Members?

I'd assume those royatlies are distributed inequally, with those carrying the largest marginal risk (such as Phillips and Sony) garnering the largest marginal benefit.